


How Do I Take Exams With Paws Instead of Hands?

by RizaHawkeyePierce



Series: Magical Youths' Guide to Growing Up [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Friendship, Gen, Marauders, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), Mild Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-09
Updated: 2020-09-09
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:34:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26376607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RizaHawkeyePierce/pseuds/RizaHawkeyePierce
Summary: Remus injures himself during one of his transformations, and the others try to convince him to rest.
Relationships: Sirius Black & Remus Lupin & Peter Pettigrew & James Potter
Series: Magical Youths' Guide to Growing Up [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1916311
Comments: 4
Kudos: 16





	How Do I Take Exams With Paws Instead of Hands?

Remus jerked back into consciousness, lying once again on the floor of the Shrieking Shack. At least, in June, it was finally getting warmer so it wasn’t too cold when he came back. He started to perform his usual check to see what injuries he’d inflicted on himself, but when he saw his right hand he froze, his heart sinking.

It was pretty mangled. It looked like he’d been chewing on it for a good portion of the night, and as he looked at it, his brain seemed to take that cue to start a throbbing pain that he was sure would get worse over time.

He swore, went to the trapdoor, opened it, clumsily bandaged himself with his good hand. Tried to hurry putting on his clothes. Had to slow down because doing everything one-handed wasn’t working.

Blood was already leaking through the bandage.

He hurried down the tunnel, holding his bandaged hand away from himself because not getting blood on his clothes seemed very important. His heart was beating much harder than normal.

He reached up to press the knot on the Whomping Willow and struggled out of the hollow in the tree’s roots to find Miss Pompfrey waiting for him as usual, but James, Sirius, and Peter were also there, each of them holding a large plate of food. 

“We brought you some breakfast!” Peter declared, holding up the plate of croissants and rolls he was carrying as evidence.

“That’s great--thanks,” said Remus, trying to smile.

Sirius frowned. “Mate, your hand--”

“Yeah, it’s--not great.” Remus held out his hand to Miss Pompfrey, who unwrapped it without comment. Seeing it again made Remus feel lightheaded. He heard gasps from Sirius and Peter.

“Sit down,” Miss Pompfrey ordered. Remus obeyed, half-falling into a sitting position on the grass. She knelt next to him and started to work.

Two hours later, Remus was having his usual argument with the others.

“You’re not going to class,” said James flatly, blocking the door out of the dormitory. “Go back to bed.”

“No,” said Remus.

“How are you going to explain your hand being messed up when it was fine yesterday?” Sirius said, lounging on his bed.

Remus glanced down at his hand, which was heavily bandaged and set in a sling.

“Venomous Tentacula. I was studying in the greenhouse and didn’t pay enough attention to what I was doing.”

“Pretty good,” said Sirius.

“I’ve had practice.” Remus turned back to James. “Finals are in two days. We’ll be going over everything we need to know for the tests. You and Sirius might not need that, but lesser mortals like Peter and me--”

“Honestly, Remus, you look terrible,” said Peter, who was still fastening his robes. “You probably should stay in bed.”

Remus sighed. A nasty headache was pulsing over one eye.

“All right, mate,” said Sirius, standing and walking over to Remus to put a hand on his shoulder, “how about James and I go to class, take notes, do the whole bit, and you stay here, get some rest, and then we’ll give you the notes we took.”

Remus shook his head. “You never take notes.”

“I could try it out. See how it goes. Maybe I’ll like it.”

“No, I mean you don’t _need_ to take notes because you just remember everything. So if you took notes, it probably wouldn’t help me, because I _don’t_ just remember everything.”

“How are you planning to take notes, though, Remus?” Peter asked, examining his hair in the mirror.

“I…” said Remus, stymied. Somehow this problem had not occurred to him. “I’ll do it left-handed.”

“Okay, new deal,” said James. He put his bag down, pulled out parchment, ink, and a quill and set them on Remus’ bedside table. “Write down a sentence with your left hand and tell me you can read it well enough that it’ll be useful, and you can come to class.”

Remus glared at him. “Fine,” he snapped and strode over to sit on his bed.

After Remus struggled to get the stopper out of the ink bottle one-handed for a moment, James took pity on him and opened it for him. Remus fumbled the quill into an approximate writing position, dipped it in the ink and started to write _my name is Remus Lupin_ on the parchment. He finished and sat back to look at his handiwork.

The letters were shaky and hardly legible, even when large blots of ink didn’t cover most of a word. Remus looked up at James, who winced. Before Remus knew what he was doing, he’d picked up the inkwell and hurled it across the room, where it shattered on the wall between James’ and Peter’s beds. He stared at the splattered ink now running down the wall, the rage that he’d felt a second before already ebbing away. Sirius, James, and Peter were all staring at him in shock. He sank down onto the bed with his good hand over his face.

No one said anything for a moment.

“You all right, mate?” Sirius asked hesitantly.

“Yeah. I just…” Remus blinked and stared at the ceiling. “It makes everything so much harder.” He took a deep breath to steady himself, then looked at James. “Sorry about your ink.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ve got loads. And--and it sucks. And we want to help you. So if you need us to take notes, or just recite what we remember--”

“Or perform it through interpretive dance,” said Sirius. Remus chuckled wetly. “Seriously, though,” said Sirius. “Whatever you need.” Peter nodded in agreement.

“Thanks,” said Remus.

“Go to bed!” Sirius said.

“I’m going, I’m going,” Remus said, half-laughing, his hands held up in defeat.

  
  
  



End file.
